Dental plugger



(No Model.) 1

N. CLARK.

DENTAL PLUGGER.

No. 368,458. Pajsented Aug. 16, 1887.

NITE STATES NORMAN CLARK, OF STERLING, ILLINOIS.

DENTAL PLUGGER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 368,458, dated August 16, 1887.

Application filed May 20, 1887.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, NORMAN CLARK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sterling, in the county of \Vhiteside and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dental Pluggers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention has reference to certain improvements in dental pluggers or fillers; and it consists more especially in the provision of certain mechanism adapted to be placed in the usual hand-piece appurtenant to such engine, and to be actuated by the usual arbor therein.

In the process of filling teeth there are two matters to be consideredone, perhaps primarily, the quality of the work and the facility of doing it, the other the severity of the operation to be experienced by the patient. The operation to the person under treatment is unavoidably tedious and somewhat painful.

The object of my invention is twofold, being both to secure rapid and good results, and to diminish as far as practicable the attendant painfulness of the operation.

The original mode of filling teeth, which consisted merely in pressure exerted by the hand of the operator through a simple handtool, had not sufficient percussion to drive the filling material into the minute recesses in the walls of the cavity, and this defect was sought to be overcome by extreme pressure from the hand, which of course was painful to the patient. Simple pressure has for years therefore been superseded by a system of percnssive blows upon the outer end of the fillingtool, either from a hammer in the hand of the operator or his attendant or by an automatic hammer placed in such position as to deliver blows upon the end of the filling-tool. This latter system in some of its forms is substantially the one universally adopted as the best heretofore devised; but it has two serious objections. One is that the impacts upon the filling-tool are too percussive for good results, there not being sufficient time during the pe Serial No. 239,873. (No model.)

riod of the impact for the filling material to form itself completely into the minute conformation of the sub-cavities, and such blows are apt to crack the enamel. Again, in this percussion system the recoil of the tooth, which succeeds each blow, necessarily has a stretching effect upon the tooth-nerves, which, as well as thejar of the blow, is a source of pain to the patient. In my invention both of these objections are overcome. The work is not only done better than formerly, but it is accomplished with what I believe to be a minimum of pain and inconvenience to the patient.

To this end my invention consists, essentially, of constituting the operative end of the filling-tool of two parts or halves, which parts r eciprocate parallel with each other alternately to and from the tooth. By this means one of the two elements of the impacting-tool is constantly in contact with the tooth, so that the recoil before referred to and its consequent pain as evils of the percussion action are prevented.

The practical operation of my invention upon the filling is very analogous to the pack ing of wool by tramping itin asuspended sack where the packer changed his weight alternately from one foot to the other and kept one foot with his weight thereon upon the wool until the other foot was brought down and such weight shifted thereto.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section ofa machine embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a View of the mutually-engaging faces of the arbor B and head or oscillating block D. Fig. 3 is a partial longitudinal section in a line perpendicular laterally to the center of the cut shown in Fig. 1.

A may represent the usual hand piece, adapted to be attached in the usual way to the dental engine.

13 is an arbor suitably seated in the inner end of the hand-piece A, and adapted to be attached to the usual rotating arbor of said engine and to be rotated thereby. The outer end of the arbor B is journaled in the fixed transverse collar (1, seated within the handpiece or case A, so that while the arbor B is free to rotate, it is held against any longitudinal movement in respect to the case A and oscillating head or block D. a

ICO

Within the case A, and adjacent to the operating end of the arbor B, is seated the head centrally seated on the transverse bolt or pivot E, seated in said case. The contact-face F of the arbor B is formed obliquely tot-he axis of its rotation.

G G are twin fillers reciprocating reversely and extending from within the case A and through the latter beyond its outer end. The inner ends of the fillers G are pivotally attached, respectively, on either side of the pivotal point E of the oscillating head D. The head D has upon its side adjacent to the arbor B araised central ridge, a, perpendicular to its axis of oscillation, with the residue of said adjacent sides sloping back in opposite directions from said ridge. The oblique face F of the arbor B is in constant contact withthe adjacent face of the head D, and as the longer side of said arbor sweepsover one end of the ridge a it oscillates that side of the head D outward, forcing the opposite side inward. The inner ends of the fillers G are pivotally attached to the head D, under the crest a, and have their pivotal movement in the line of such crest. The shorter side of the arbor B permits the one side of the head D not operated upon in the action last named to swing inward coincidently with the said outward movement of the other sidc,and the continued rotation of the arbor B imparts coincident re ciprocal movement inopposite directions to the fillers G and alternates with each half-revolution the movement of each of said fillers G.

The distance between the head D and adjacent end of the arbor B can be slightly increased, if desired, so that the long end of the arbor B shall strike the head D alone on the crest a, when the stroke of the fillers G will be more percussive than where, as now shown, the arbor B and head D are in constant contact; but I think the present construction preferable.

The tool is of course held upon the filling with more or less constant pressure from the hand, and as the force of the impact upon the filling of each outstroke of the filler will be just equal to this hand-pressure, it will be understood that the amount of pressure to be exerted by each filler will be regulated by the operator through the hand-pressure aforesaid. As the projection against the tooth of each filler G has a tendency to push the hand of the operator back from the tooth, it is obvious that the operator will not only at all times know the degree of force being exerted by the filler, but that he will also have it in his power, by varying his own hand-pressure, to regulate the quantum of such force.

The recoil above referred to is obviated by the fact that each filler G remains in contact with the tooth until the other filler has also come in contact therewith with sufficient force to relieve the other. This alternate action at the operating ends of the fillers G also prevents the filling from recoiling or receding, such filling being held meanwhile by the filler in contact therewith.

The block or head D can be formed to conveniently receive different fillers, so as to afford convenience for change of tools, or heads D having different tools can be interchanged, and the outer or operating ends of the fillers G may be of such different conformation as may be desired.

The action of the cam end of the arbor B, in connection with the oscillating block D, causes the character of the movementsimparted by said arbor to the fillers G to be of a less percussivecharacter than the action by hammerstrokes, and much more frequent than is possible with a hammer, and at the same time the rapidity of the rotation of said arbor imparts to said fillers such a rapidity of movement as to give the latter more of a driving force than belongs to a'purely pres'sure'action.

The great advantage of my invention is not only in the simplicity of its construction and operation, but also in the fact that it consists of a tool which delivers a series of pulsations upon the filling, but at the same time is in constant contact with said filling, all of which advantages have been before mentioned.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States,

1. In combination with a suitable case or hand-piece, A, the twin fillers G G, having their inner ends suitably pivoted on opposite sides of an oscillating block, D, within said case and their outer ends projected loosely through the end of said case, and block D, pivoted transversely midway between the pivotal seats of said fillers, whereby the latter are adapted to be coincidently reciprocated in opposite directions, substantially as shown, and for the purpose described.

2. The combination of the case or handpiece A, the head D, centrally pivoted therein and provided with the crest a, and the fillers G, having their inner ends pivotally attached to the opposite sides of said head in the line of said crest and perpendicular to the axis of oscillation of said head, and thus adapted to reciprocate alternately in the line of the axis of said case, substantially as shown, and for the purpose described.

3. The combination of a suitably-seated arbor, B, provided with an oblique or camlike face, F, an oscillating head, D, provided with irregularities on its face adjacent to and adapted to be intermittently engaged by said arbor B, and one or more fillers, G, pivotally attached to said head at a point outside of the axis of oscillation of the latter, substantially as shown, and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

NORMAN CLARK. Witnesses:

WIELAND H. BLooM, J OHN G. MANAHAN. 

